Video Game Board Games [part 4]: PAC MAN MAGNETIC MAZE (Tomy, 1984)

 

While this one isn't technically a "board game," per se, it IS an attempt at replicating the arcade experience in a toy that you can enjoy in your own home! Also, this is simply one of the most unique games you will ever see (again from Japan, because of course), and it's worth a look just for that!

I am ashamed to admit that I had no knowledge of this as a kid, and I was completely obsessed and consumed with Pac-Man at that time.  I have no idea how it slipped by me, but I'd like to think it wasn't advertised very well, and flew completely under the radar! I would've eaten it up, though.

This game was made by Tomy (by the way, You Tube people, it is NOT pronounced "Tommy"), who brought tons of cool toys over to the U.S. during that time (think RUN YOURSELF RAGGED).  The idea is to recreate the experience of playing Pac-Man by using a joystick-controlled tilt-table, characters with roller-balls built in, and magnets! You read that right!

First off, here are the included characters:  Pac-Man, a blue ghost (Inky of course to us), and a red ghost (who we know as Blinky).  Each has a marble-sized metal ball-bearing underneath, allowing them to roll freely.  The fruit targets (which the instructions refer to as "Power Pills," here we go again...) also have large flat magnets beneath them.

The gameboard includes three metal wickets, like you would see in croquet.  One very cool thing about this game is that it is customizable, and you can place these metal wickets wherever you want.  The above configuration is what the instructions indicate.  Once you place these, you attach the fruit beneath them, where they are held on with the magnets.  

Next, set the timer.  This game would have been plenty of fun without it, but suddenly PERFECTION memories come flooding back!

Now, using the joystick, guide your Pac-Man along the maze, picking up the fruit targets and bringing them back to your home base area (where they are removed and placed in an area to the left of the joystick).  He has a magnet in his head, which will allow him to pick up the fruit! Try to keep going, and acquire all of the fruit, but don't let a ghost catch up or run into you (they have side magnets, which was a pretty devious touch)! It can be pretty challenging, especially with the timer running.

Here is what it looks like under the board--the yellow receptacle holds the center of the board, and is tilted around by the joystick.

Overall review: This game actually succeeds in recreating the mechanics of playing Pac-Man, but in your own home.  It shows how far companies were willing to go to do that very thing.  It also allows some customization, which can give you some different playing experiences (and I guess you don't always have to start everyone on their spaces if you don't want to).  If you are after one, hold out for one that is totally complete!

Lastly, here are the instructions for the game:

McDonaldland Citizenship Certificate (1975)

 

I don't go around flaunting it, but I am an honorary citizen of McDonaldland, and now you can be too! This half-sheet-sized certificate, printed on heavy, fancy stock, comes from 1975, and was designed to be given out at birthday parties and special events.  

Signed by Mayor McCheese, and Ronald himself, it's worthy of a frame in your home or office, and shows everyone that you are entitled to fun and happiness forever.  It doesn't get any better than that!

Join along with me in missing the fun and specialness that McDonald's once held, rather than just the gray box of sadness that it has turned into today.

THE GODZILLA LIVE Complete Set (Banpresto, 1993)

Here is a set of small plushes that have been on my want list for many a year now! THE GODZILLA LIVE is a series of 5 plushes (each around 6 inches tall) made by Banpresto in 1993, as "UFO Catcher" (claw machine) prizes.  

Before we look at them in detail, here is the tag:

First up is Rodan, who in the above card art is the smallest, yet in reality dwarfs his bandmates!

This one must've been quite difficult to win and hook with the claw (unless you grabbed him by the drums, maybe).  He has a giant, bulbous  head, and a stern expression, showing he takes his rhythm-keeping quite seriously.  It's very difficult to find an example of him today that has the drumsticks; they are prone to breaking loose.  His bass drum has the logo for the band:

Up next is Gigan, and this one just may be my favorite of the group.  His simplified design accomplishes volumes. Just look at that shredding pose! Both guitars in the band have three strings, so he can be the bassist if you prefer.

The big G may look familiar to you; this is a design that Banpresto used a lot in their UFO Catcher plushes, especially.  He is rocking here with fierce determination!

Mothra is adorable, but be advised that she does not stand.  It's too bad she didn't include something to prop her up.  As it is, you need to lean her against a fellow band member in as unobtrusive a way as you can come up with. On the tag, she is shown with shades on, but the plush just has large, uncovered eyes.

However, Mothra pales in comparison to King Ghidorah.  First of all though, let's take in the wonderfulness here.  Keyboards. AND. .....Vocals???!! Do two of the heads play the keys? One of them is holding the mic, so...let's not think about it too much.  11 out of 10 for charm, hilarity and originality, but....1 out of 10 because this thing WILL NOT STAND no matter what you do.  It's a round lump, like trying to stand a pillow.  Now, the details are done well--check out the tails:

And here is a better look at the keyboard(s) from a top view:

You can prop Mothra up, but there is absolutely no way Ghidorah is going to be upright without extra equipment.  If he sat on a plastic ring of some sort, it  would make a huge difference!

Before we conclude though, a bit of history--I tend to think that the inspiration for this supergroup came from the artwork for a 1972 promotional single entitled, "The Bride Of Godzilla:"

Both sides of the cover reveal: Godzilla on guitar and vocals, Gigan just singing (?), King Ghidorah as an entire horn section (and a flute), Angilas on saxophone (that's the best thing I've typed today), and....Godzilla again, as his own drummer? Astounding!

Godzilla: DESTROY ALL MONSTERS Vidpro Card (Super Nintendo, 1995)

 

Today we have a piece of history that qualifies for several categories at once.  It's Godzilla history, video game/Nintendo history, AND even Toys R Us history!

If you recall what the videogame section at TRU looked like, games were in racks or shelves, akin to some video rental stores of the time.  When a title ran out, there would be a placeholder card at the back, showing that the title needed to be re-ordered.  These were produced by a company out of Dallas, Texas called Vidpro, and are quite rare today.  We have looked at one other several years ago--for the GameBoy GODZILLA game.

What we are looking at today is such a card, but for a game that was cancelled! GODZILLA: DESTROY ALL MONSTERS, the game we never got.

Announced in NINTENDO POWER in May of 1995, nobody seems to know why this game was suddenly withdrawn.  It was a port of a Super Famicom game from Japan called GODZILLA: GREAT MONSTER BATTLE, so it does at least exist, and can be tracked down and played today.  Here is what the box art looked like:

Maybe SUPER GODZILLA's sales and reputation did it in...that game wasn't that great.  Either way, it's too bad that we didn't get an additional Godzilla game for the Super Nintendo, but it's an interesting piece of history to look back on.

GODZILLA vs. MEGALON Complete Set of Color Stills (Cinema Shares, 1976)

 

This is an update of an old post, because I just this week completed this set of 8.  MEGALON had 8 x 10-inch "color stills" instead of lobby cards, but they are super cool, with lots of great promotional photos.  Sort of like giant trading cards. Here are all 8 in one lovely post!

                 

Sphinx GODZILLA GUIDES - Massive Updates Completed

One of my goals before the end of the year was to get all of the Sphinx Godzilla guides updated, and this is at last completed.

Some updates were small, but some were major.  The Godzilla Trendmasters guide is a completely different book, now packed with behind-the-scenes info, unreleased concept art, prototypes, and stuff that you will see nowhere else! If you are the least bit interested in this chapter of Godzilla history, you will want this!

Lastly, the volume on Godzilla comics received a large update, simply because they will not stop cranking these things out. This is the only place on the entire internets that has this complete information (but that's true for every volume)!

Everything is completely caught up to date, so stay tuned for some amazing things the new year will bring (such as volume 5, still in progress!

Go to the Sphinx Godzilla Guides Page to download all the fancy PDFs!

More Vintage Menko Cards (part two)

 

And now, the conclusion of the treasure trove of vintage menko cards that I recently acquired.  This first group has the same manufacturer (and backing style) that our entire last post had, except these cards are super-thick, which you'd expect from menko cards. Right off the bat, we see Gamera, Godzilla, and Gappa...although I have to admit I am stumped on the bird-headed hero in a couple of the cards, and I haven't been able to discern his identity, so please leave a comment and let me know! Oh, don't miss GOLDAR from SPACE GIANTS sneaking into the bottom row! This is an all-star group for sure.

And here are the card backs!

This next group is super cool, beginning with King Ghidorah, and moving on to Bemular and Antlar from the first year of ULTRAMAN, and finally, a very cool Mechagodzilla, who apparently has sunk the Titanic.  The lizard at the end of the top row would make an awesome album cover.

All of these cards are super thick, too, but apparently have different manufacturers.  All menko cards seem to incorporate Rock/Paper/Scissors, but some even feature playing cards on their backs.  The ones at bottom left seem to want you to draw your own artwork in the space provided--which seems like a missed opportunity--while the last group actually features SPECTREMAN of all things!

Lastly, we return to some old friends, and even the "umbrella yokai," which was a surprise.  The "Godzilla vs. UFOs" card is awesome, and the Ghidorah card at bottom left is not a repeat, because this time the art is overprinted with metallic gold ink, which unfortunately doesn't show up in the scan very well.  The back is completely different, too.  I was going to say something about Ultraman fighting Godzilla again, when I finally realized the other monster was Daigoro from DAIGORO vs. GOLIATH! Holy crap! Next we have an awesome, almost tribal Ghidorah image, then a card obviously based on ULTRA Q, and finally, our bird-headed friend again.

Here are the backs, which are much more varied than earlier styles we have seen.  The "TV" ones are pretty funny (note Zorro in the upper-left....Zorro?) Also note the military hardware--early menko cards were heavy on this sort of thing, before tokusatsu and kaiju films gave them a higher calling and true purpose for their artwork.  

I hope you have enjoyed looking at these awesome cards. As you can tell, I love these things.  The kaiju-based ones don't come up very often anymore, so you have to wait for a good deal.  But, they are out there.

More Vintage Menko Cards (part one)

We have looked at cool vintage menko cards on this site in the past, which were Godzilla-themed ones that used photographs, but now here is a large lot of vintage kaiju-related ones featuring paintings!

Just in case you don't know, menko is a very old game played in Japan (with variants all over the world), where the objective is to flip over your opponent's cards by skillfully throwing yours at them (then you get to keep your winnings)! 

These cards are all from the 60's and 70's, and many are most likely unauthorized, and can therefore be a little dodgy in their depictions of characters. As you can see in this first group, it's heavy on ULTRA Q and the first ULTRAMAN (and maybe AGON THE ATOMIC DRAGON there in the lower left corner?).

Here are the backs of this first group.  I've tried to group all of the cards together with similar reverse artwork, since I have no way of telling you anything about their manufacturers.  I can tell you that all of these we will see in this first part are thinner than the normal menko cards, these being about as thick as the backing cardboard on a note pad.  Also, it seems to be a tradition for nearly all menko cards to include "Paper/Rock/Scissors" on their backs...I always figured it was the way that kids determined who took the first turn!

What I can't figure out, or find information about anywhere, is the significance of the string of numbers on the backs of most cards.  If anyone knows, please leave a comment!

This second group is interesting.  It starts off with a pseudo-MARINE BOY, then goes back to Ultra-kaiju (by the way, the Gomora in the bottom left is the same artwork from the first group, but has a completely different back as we will see), then gives us GAPPA, and for some reason,...IT CONQUERED THE WORLD!

And here are the backs. To say these are crudely cut is almost an understatement!

And here is the last of this group.  Once again the duplicate cards have completely different backs.   

Next time we will look at another great batch of menko cards, by a variety of manufacturers, featuring even more guest stars, from Gamera to Goldar!

Countdown to Halloween 2024 (Week 5)!

Hard to believe, but here we are again at another Halloween already! Let's wrap this up just in time for the festivities:

Haunted House (Italy, 1985) This is another of those records that is one side hellscape, and the other side individual sound effects that are divided up.  It's very well done.  I recently pulled this one out of a dusty box at a Game Exchange, and the Treat turned into a Trick when I removed the record to find deep, very feelable scratches all over both sides, done maliciously with some sort of garden tool.  I cried to the heavens: "WHY?!!!?!?!!"

Tales To Dream By (Weirdo, 1962) This is another great one, apparently an amateur production, but done extremely well.  It sort of purports to be a radio show, almost, as it has openings and closings, but presents four tales that are very spooky, especially alone in the dark.  Very expensive record if you can ever find one (and you won't)!

Thrillers & Chillers (Troll, 1973) Another in the extremely fun series of great Troll stories.  Can you handle yet another rendition of "The Tell-Tale Heart"? Also the old "Monkey's Paw" chestnut, and it goes from there. Well done with familiar voices that you will recognize from vintage commercials and other places!

Happy Halloween!

LINK: Spooky Month 2024 (Week 5)

Monster Initial Stickers (Topps, 1974)

 

Original Wrapper!

In the first volume of our Godzilla Guide, covering all vintage Godzilla items of the U.S., I have an occasional category that pops up called "Unauthorized, But Who Cares," when an item isn't exactly officially licensed, but is too cool to ignore.  Today's item falls into that category!

As you can see, Topps had an interesting series of sticker cards in 1974, where each card offered two different letters filled with cool monster artwork.  Here is the "Godzilla" part of that set:

Or "Not Godzilla," but it's pretty obvious what they are going for here.  The backs of the cards were blank (puzzle cards were later found in packs, rather than, you know, just actually using the card backs for that, which would've made more sense.

Also, there are variants to be found, as sometimes a letter of the alphabet could be paired with a different one, such as these other examples:

It's a pretty cool set.  Topps continued the idea of initial cards for several years, here and there (the stickers for their EMPIRE STRIKES BACK series, for example).  My problem was, I was never brave enough to actually use these kinds of things...I couldn't bear to stick one on a notebook...then the card would be ruined! I always saw them as collectibles, even when I was tiny.  Maybe there is a gene for that, after all.